the birds

Once I was sitting on a beach in Seattle, when all of a sudden a flock of seagulls flew over my head and, while my head was turned, a seagull dropped a bomb right on my ankle…which also splattered on my pants and purse.

Gross.

I still like birds though. This piece proves it! It’s a gift for my sister and still a work in progress but should be done soon.

sunshine and cough drops

How is it June already? More importantly, how is it that I have a cold when it’s 80 degrees outside? Not ok; not ok at all. At least I can still draw.

Fighting boredom one drawing at a time

The other day I was bored, but instead of twiddling my thumbs and staring blankly into space, I pulled a few dying Prismacolor and Sharpie markers out of my bulging pencil case and went to work. It was really fun, especially the hair and shirt — oh man, I love drawing hair and any sort of pattern. And aren’t the colors pretty? That green is quite possibly one of my favorite colors around. 

Excited, excited!

Just wanted to share the thumbnails for a few pieces I’m working on and am really excited about. They’re not my usual subjects…I think Mother’s Day being around the corner had something to do with it. Soon they should be done and ready for your viewing pleasure. Until then, use your imaginations.

Breaking in the sketchbook

New sketchbooks are intimidating strangers. Their covers are smooth and pages blank, daring you to make that very first mark. Unlike those sketchbooks that are faithful companions for months, new sketchbooks don’t hold any of your experiences, successes or frustrations. New sketchbooks are waiting to have their character decided by you. Intimidating. 

Or maybe I just think too much.

Either way, I finished my old sketchbook and bought a new one. As usual it’s taken me a while to get going in it. For whatever reason the first few pages of my new sketchbooks get me into a rather frustrating “sketchbook block.” Hopefully that ends soon.

These are a the first few pages of my new sketchbook and a few of the last pages from my old one, listed newest-oldest.

Wacom tablets are F-U-N

Last week I made an important purchase: I BOUGHT A WACOM TABLET! Hooray for technology! I’ve been wanting one for a while now and finally bit the bullet. Let me just say that bullet has been well worth it.

To celebrate, I drew the silly images above. They’re a bit different than my normal style but I figured what the heck, why not branch out a bit? My personal favorite is the elephant. I couldn’t help but giggle as I drew him.

Painting party at my house

I have been procrastinating today for quite some time. This is mostly because, well, I simply haven’t wanted to do the things that were on today’s to-do list. What was today you ask? The answer is STUDIO HOUSEWORK DAY! Hooray…? This means that I:

1. Budgeted the studio monies. 

This is by far the worst thing about studio housework day. It simply takes much longer than it should to budget and plan monetary stuff when your right-brain has engulfed most of your already rather feeble left-brain.

2. Designed promotional mailers. 

Honestly I rather like doing this, it just takes time away from what I love most, which is painting/drawing. But thanks to self-discipline, you’ll be seeing them soon Mr. Postman (or Ms. Postlady)

3. Worked on the new design for my currently rather simple, but functional, website. 

This also isn’t really a terrible task; in fact it’s rather satisfying to take something that already works and make it even better. I’m just so much more partial to working with my hands than a screen that the thought of designing for an extended period of time makes me feel a bit anxious.

4. Went to the gym…..

Wait; that’s not technically studio housework…but let me just say that running 3 miles was very much necessary for the preservation of my already rather fragile sanity, especially after crunching numbers and sitting in front of a computer all day.

Today’s outcome: Success, most definitely. 

My reward: a yummy apple fritter from my favorite local bakery + a “paint whatever I want” party. Happy studio housework day, Leslie. (It wasn’t so bad.)

New Irrational Fear: Urban Bears

Urban bears?!! *gasp!* Visit the Irrational Fears Blog for the complete version…

Drawing a cow really isn’t that hard.

On Saturday I got to hang out with my little cousin Lexi.  Every time she visits Lexi wants to break out the paper and colored pencils so we can draw and color together, which I personally think is fantastic.

First Lexi taught me how to draw a cow. Can you tell which one is hers and which one is mine? Apparently drawing a cow is one of the easiest things ever to draw (or so I was told). Thanks to Lexi I am now a qualified cow-drawing teacher, so if anyone needs lessons just let me know.

After drawing a couple of cows, we moved on to paints. Lexi wanted to make a birthday present for her mom and I needed to work on an illustration for the Folio Society, so it worked out quite well. We set up my “special paints” (acrylics), found some “hard paper” (illustration board), grabbed my palettes (styrofoam plates) and spent the next hour making pretty pictures together. Lexi really got into her painting and discovered that she loves mixing colors (a girl after my own heart). It was so fun to watch her concentrate on mixing and painting.

Her painting turned out really well, don’t you think? Needless to say, her mom loved the painting. I loved spending time with her and wish she could be my studio buddy. Too bad she has to go to school every day.

Why yes I am a color enthusiast

Earlier I mentioned going to a 3-day intensive color theory workshop with Bill Perkins and it was AWESOME. Bill talked about color and value and edges and all sorts of other nerdy goodness.  The workshop was based on situations with live models, NOT color chips (oh man those things are boring). We painted for 8 hours each day and by the end of the 3 days, we had over 20 paintings to show for it — needless to say my feet were super sore by the end of Saturday (being the practical person I am, I most definitely wore cute flats each day isn’t of shoes that had more, um, foot support; can you blame me?). 

So here is a smattering of what I did. Each image was meant as “color sketch” instead of a “painting,” so there wasn’t much stress placed on the drawing. As I painted I tried to match blocks of color/value, as well as paying attention to my edges. 

Just a note, those scratch marks on the paintings aren’t intentional. I thought they were dry and stacked them….and well, they weren’t completely dry. Sad day, but still happy color sketches.